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Great numbers again – are you getting a lot of gun-shy potential buyers scared to pull the trigger because of Canada Post? I seem to be getting one a day messaging me and my sales have been slightly lower then expected.
I think the media is doing a very bad job on what they are reporting on shipping times – the comment “parcels won’t be delivered until March” keeps coming up in articles I read, but it’s not in the proper context, yet nothing I’ve shipped or bought has been lagging not more then a day or so more then usually expectations with Canada Post. I blame the media more than Canada Post or the union….
Congrats on the 1500 – I’m using you as my goalposts for 6+ months out…
I think you should start in 2019 keeping track of all the time you spend on eBay. It will also help direct you to “avoid” some harder to list/pack items that aren’t that high of a profit.
$47.67 CAD (converts to $35.60 US) is what we are averaging per hour of work this year.
I did not track how much I made an hour for 15 years – only the last 5 and it really helps to show what items are a time waster and what items are more profitable.
I would not avoid all the small $5-$10 profit items – some of them are simple to list/re-list and ship quickly.
Building a good understanding of my “hourly rate” has been the basis of my movement to full-time in the future. It gives you a good understanding of what you can do alone vs. working for someone else, as long as you can scale it over more items.
For me this year, it has been interesting in that some categories seem to be taking off, and others are just completely dead.
Almost everything I sell is vintage – the category I see the most decline in is vintage stereo equipment from the late 70’s and up. Items from the 80’s were easy sales the last few years, but now nobody is buying.
Vintage sports equipment is doing very well for me this year – and is easy to find if you know what to look for.
Overall, I think it’s the balance or diversity that can keep your business at a steady sales level. If I depended on stereo equipment, I’d have a horrible year.
I do enjoy the strange looks you get from some people when you tell them you sell items on eBay…some close family members still don’t get it even though I’ve been doing it for over 20 years. I’m not sure what they are thinking sometimes about what eBay is about.
I also enjoy the reaction some people have when I tell them something like “my wife and I are driving 2 hours away on a Saturday to hit up thrift stores in another city”.
I’ve heard people describe what we do as “Picking” – they have some romantic image of what happens from shows like American/Canadian/Aussie Pickers and that I’m buying an old car for $10k and flipping it for $15k instead of buying an item for under $10 and getting $50 for it.
I just watched (binge watched 10 episodes…hoping for something) of a new show on Discovery called “Vintage Tech Hunters”. I rather watch Steve’s videos any day, however, the show was worth it for some bits.
-the hosts are HORRIBLE. They try and copy the American Pickers feel (even have the same van and conversations in the van) but come across as annoying and insincere.
-a lot of the “vintage tech” they find they overpay significantly for, and have weird logic for the profit. Some items they buy for $400 to make $50 profit…others I know very well and the price they paid and claim they can sell them for is way off.
-they never show anything selling…they claim to sell “online”
-just lots of nonsense and false stories in the show. One episode shows them driving through downtown in the town near me, but then they are at someone’s house an hour away? The episode is supposed to be around Niagara Falls, but at one part they say they are going to look out in the country around the city, and somehow end up in an area 5 HOURS away? Makes no sense.The show is good for a laugh if you sell vintage electronics, but Steve’s videos are more realistic and will teach you the real value of things – this show is a joke on the number side. However, the items they do find are saleable, just not at the prices they claim (I think they pay $80 for a Lite Brite and claim to flip them for hundreds…yeah right)…
If these jokers have a show, surely Steve should get a chance!
Did the math…will be going with a Basic store on eBay.ca to start, and use my 50 free on .com for certain items. Sadly, I left just over $500 on the table by not having a store this year. For 10 of the 12 months, it would have made sense…
Interestingly though, when I look at my listing on .com or .ca, both have the various additional categories that a store allows (categorization, discounts, promotions, etc).
…why people donate computers, laptops, phones, and other items full of personal information, photos, and videos.
The craziest one we ever bought was a purse with a wallet inside it – the wallet was full of credit/bank cards and personal documents (all obsolete).
It’s a decision we’ll have to think through – we’re 50/50 on each site now because of the free listings we get, but are leaning more towards .ca as it allows us to control shipping costs more within the country (as U.S. and international rates are pretty much the same under 1kg).
I’ll share my decision once we make one. Need to do the math…
Here’s my list of what I’m doing different in 2019:
-I currently only track the cost of goods, shipping supplies, postage, and fees – need to start tracking mileage, and all expenses before I go full time
-electronically store my receipts for purchases
-I want to have 1000 listings by end of April (currently hover around 200-250)
-I need to sign up for a store subscription (challenge is I sell on eBay.com and eBay.ca – need to determine the platform, or both, or use multiple accounts)
-learn to use the iPad Santa is bringing me, and what is more efficient to do on it vs. a computer
-start fresh in 2019 (planning on doing this when I’m off work between Xmas and NYE) – clean out all the stagnant items, re-organize my work area. I’ve already bought bins (thrift store finds), vinyl pockets to label the exterior of the bins (another thrift find), and cutdown on the number of different boxes and envelopes I use (3 of each).
-start selling the odd fun oddball items that I like – someone else may also like old bowling trophy ashtrays?While my store has been much smaller the last five years, and we do take breaks occasionally from listing (including the month of November that just past), my records show that when I stop listing for a period, it takes about 6 weeks to notice a sales decline that is significant, and after about 8-10 weeks the sales numbers start to plummet.
I think it also depends on your sales strategy – I like to turn and burn my inventory – I list my items cheap and try to sell them quick. That is why I think after a couple months my numbers disappear without steady listing.
Another interesting number from my store is what percentage of my inventory (no matter what the number is) sells in a month – it seems to be consistently around 30% when I don’t list for awhile, and about 40-45% when I do list. Therefore, the more I list in a month, the greater the turnover as the “cheap good stuff” sells quick, and the long tail sustains me through the “breaks” in listing.
As I transition to higher volumes and consistent listing, it should be interesting to see if the same turnover stays true.
Hi Jon, I’ve always wanted to ask a board game seller if they have a “parts” collection to complete games.
I’m a huge fan of classic board games, but always find them with several pieces missing and don’t touch them. I’m just curious if it is worthwhile to buy every game I know that will sell (if complete), and slowly collect the pieces to it….
Alternatively, I’ve also seen on this forum that people sell just parts – is this worthwhile? I’m curious because I have an old Ideal Hide N Seek game that is missing a few pieces – I’ve sold these before in complete condition for $80-$100 within days, but one missing a couple pieces priced at $30 has been sitting for half a year…
Yes – it is an interesting challenge to re-invent your identity, especially when you don’t know when the change will occur. Some days I can’t wait to get my pink slip, other days I think how I’m getting paid very well to sit around for another 8 hours and get to do whatever I want with a parachute at the end. The biggest challenge is accepting the transition, and coming up with a solid plan. I’ve done that, and now I just need to execute it when the time comes.
Our only challenge now is selling our current home and moving – however, that doesn’t even seem bad now that we know where we are going, and have lots of time to move our possessions.
It’s an interesting phase we’re going through – many people I worked with cried when they finally got let go, for me it may be one of the best days of my life. It’s just an odd feeling to be overly prepared and waiting, instead of being thrown into chaos when I’ve lost jobs in the past.
Yes, our situations are fairly similar – I follow your comments closely and interested in seeing how well things work out in your journey.
I currently ship using only Canada Post – I can see the Buffalo, NY skyline from my house and I have crossed the border to ship items in the past when it was easier (it was only a 20-30 minute roundtrip, but usually tagged in a gas/grocery run in the U.S. when the dollar was better). With the labour issues at Canada Post, we did look into other options, but there is no local re-shipper near where I live (probably because of my proximity to the U.S.). Taking items across the border legally is not easy anymore – you use to just tell U.S. Customs what you had and they didn’t care. Now, you have to get a commercial permit to cross, use the “truck” lanes to make a declaration (they are always hours to wait in) and pay duty on anything you bring in (if applicable). You also have to have invoices and paperwork for everything, and can’t have it pre-packed. Too much hassle for the few dollars I would save on my U.S. shipments.
We also looked into this based on where we are moving, and the closest location would still be about 2 hours drive – so we’ll stick with Canada Post since it is in walking distance form our new place.
November 2018
As this is my first entry, would like to recap our current situation.
We are a couple in our 40s, no children, that live in the Golden Horseshoe area of Ontario, Canada. We have been casual sellers on eBay for over 21 years, during the last 5 years we have slowly grown our eBay business and have become comfortable with the numbers we are generating to move on in our careers. We have replaced one income with eBay sales and casual work, and I’m currently waiting to be made redundant at a dead company that is retaining me to sit around in a warehouse all day. I am getting paid very well to do almost nothing – and the bonus at the end is great, along with the government benefits for losing my job. Therefore, the best decision is to wait it out.
We have begun to plan our future extensively – we even have bought a new home in a much cheaper area of the province, and are slowly repairing it on weekends or having relatives do some work. We have even setup some small businesses to use some of our skills to even out our online/eBay sales.
Our transition decisions were based on several factors – our debt will be gone when we sell our current home and move to our new one, we have a decent nest egg in various pensions for our later years, our healthcare is covered, and worst case scenario we’ll just work for someone else casually if need be. However, we are confident with years of sales history and knowledge that we can be successful with some hard work and frugality.
Our lives are in a strange purgatory – one foot still in the clutches of the corporate world just waiting to be released to our new lives. However, it has been great to have the time to really plan our move, and life changes that are yet to come.
The ski jackets are amazing! Just watched a crazy holiday movie from my youth called “The Dog Who Stopped The War (The Toque War)” which is a dubbed French-Canadian movie and all the kids had crazy jackets like that from the 80’s or worse!
Depending on the brand, I’ve sold a few of them over the years, however, most are a long-tail sell if they aren’t a good brand.
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